


The Perfect Match

by pallavens



Category: Wanna One (Band)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Office, Exes to Lovers, M/M, Super side Park Jihoon/Park Woojin
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-02-26
Updated: 2018-02-26
Packaged: 2019-03-16 11:03:40
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 16,402
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13634985
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/pallavens/pseuds/pallavens
Summary: Ong Seongwoo is completely over his ex-boyfriend.Yup. Completely over him.(spoiler alert:he isn't)





	The Perfect Match

**Author's Note:**

  * For [raindropcakes](https://archiveofourown.org/users/raindropcakes/gifts).



> all of the boys (and girls) are aged up at least 5 years in this au!
> 
> to my beautiful recipient: I'm terribly sorry.

“And it’s with great delight–”

 

“Dear god. When will it end?” Seongwoo mumbles to the tall, dark-haired man by his side, who looks at him with a soft smile. “He’s taking thirty minutes just to make some stupid announcement. When will he ever stop?”

 

“He’s the boss. He can do whatever he wants. Be quiet,” Minhyun whispers back.

 

“– that today we’ll start The Real Match’s second and most ambitious challenge –”

 

Seongwoo continues with his whispering. “Why does he like talking so much though?”

 

“You say that as if he wasn’t like that all along,” Minhyun whispers back. Jaehwan, who’s just behind them, giggles.

 

“Let the old man have his speeches. It makes him happy,” Jaehwan says with a warm smile towards their boss.

 

“Stop talking like that about boss,” Youngmin chimes in and Seongwoo glares at him with over exaggerated annoyance.

 

“Jesus, Youngmin, stop being a pushover!”

 

“– and we plan to – ” Jisung stops in the middle of his speech, a cup of coffee in hand, shooting an ugly glare in Seongwoo’s direction. He obviously succeeded in grinding his boss’ gears. “Oi. Do you have something to say, Ong Seongwoo?”

 

 Seongwoo clears his throat. “Nothing, boss.”

 

“It seems you have something to say, though.”

 

“I truly don’t.”

 

“You were talking just now,” Jisung presses on, a cynical smile on his face. “Be kind and share with everyone.”

 

“Was I talking?” He looks at Minhyun, who shrugs, looking at the ceiling as if this is none of his business. “I was merely sneezing.”

 

“Funny. You’re very funny,” Jisung says in a monotonous tone, and then he looks back to the crowd. “As I was saying–”

 

Seongwoo rolls his eyes. “And on he goes.”

 

This time, someone shushes him. And Seongwoo knows exactly who it is.

 

He looks to his side and right on the other side of the room is none other than Kang Daniel sending him an annoyed look just before going back to paying full attention to Jisung. Seongwoo frowns slightly, crosses his arm in a childish instance and he can’t help but feel this twist in his chest that he prefers to read as anger and not as hurt. The harsh truth is that he and Daniel barely talk these days but it still annoys him to the depths of his core that he thinks he’s worthy of shushing him. Kang Daniel. Shushing him! The goddamn nerve!

 

Now Seongwoo will fucking talk.

 

“What did he say? I lost track,” he whispers and Minhyun sighs.

 

“The kids will have to compete for the new upgrade on the app.”

 

“The interns?” Seongwoo raises his eyebrows, “Oh!” He says it a little too loudly, enough to make Jisung stare back at him.

 

Their boss looks just like a man who is about to commit first-degree murder. “As I was saying,” he continues, “this year we are going to hold our second challenge in celebration of our second-year anniversary.”

 

Everyone cheers excitedly all around their small albeit quite cool-looking office, men and women clapping and smiling while the interns went to the front and bowed, some of them looking happy, some of them looking simply terrified. Seongwoo stares at them with a fatherly smile. It’s quite the nice thing that their once so small startup has now grown enough for them to have more than One intern.

 

Jisung goes on to explain the whole ordeal to them with further detail. Basically, the interns are supposed to create a whole new feature for their dating app, The Real Match, which would be called, very creatively, The Perfect Match, which is supposed to be able to find who is the perfect person amidst all of the profiles contained in the app. The intern who develops the perfect feature for the app would not only get a raise but also a secured spot on their team once they graduate. It’s the perfect opportunity for a grad student and just the sort of thing Jisung and Sungwoon always come up with because the former loves games and the latter is an actual demon.

 

“But you won’t be doing this alone, of course,” Jisung continues, addressing the interns, and Seongwoo feels as confused as the interns look. “I’ll be teaming you guys up with our best.”

 

He gestures to the development team and everyone starts hollering and cheering like a bunch of baboons. Jisung clears his throat, and Seongwoo can see that he’s torn between telling them to not make so much noise during working hours, and also happy about the reception for their newest idea.

 

“The selected interns for this are—” <i>Drumroll.</i> “—Park Woojin, Park Jihoon, Lee Daehwi, Kim Yeri, Kim Jiwoo, and Yoo Seonho.”

 

The cheers are even louder now and they all laugh, the interns walking to the front and bowing, except for Woojin who punches his own chest three times like he’s fucking Tarzan.

 

Jisung laughs, and then continues, “And you are going to be teamed up with, respectively, Ong Seongwoo, Kang Daniel, me—” He pauses to direct a bright smile towards Daehwi who sends him a finger heart. “Bae Joohyun, Ha Sooyoung, and Hwang Minhyun.”

 

Woojin stares at him from the front of the room, all across the desks and computers between them and the two of them give each other a thumbs up. Around the office, most of the boys started getting closer to their mentors for the challenge, and Seongwoo laughs when Seonho greets Minhyun with a loud and wet kiss on his cheek.

 

“I’m so glad I’m on your team!” he says happily and Minhyun looks like he wants to die.

 

“So,” Jisung continues and Seongwoo looks back at him. “That settles our impromptu meeting,” he says and they laugh. He’s about to head off to his office but then he pauses, looks back at them. “And please, guys, remember this a lighthearted competition. That means no stupid fights, okay?”

 

He sends a pointed look to Daniel and then to Seongwoo himself, who is obviously offended by the not-so-subliminal message Jisung is implying in front of everyone. He doesn’t know why he has to receive an ugly mom-look too when he was not at fault at all about what happened months ago. He sighs, a little bit hurt. Jisung always plays favorites.

 

“And with that said,” Jisung continues, opens his arms as he smiles, “let the games begin!”

 

 

* * *

 

 

“I may be seeing things,” Woojin starts after taking a drink of his soda and Seongwoo looks back at him with interest, “but I think there’s something going on between you and Daniel.”

 

They are all (well, not really all of them) at the barbecue restaurant near their office building in a last-minute celebration put together by no one other than Seongwoo himself.

 

The reaction around the table is priceless. Sewoon raises his eyebrows while Youngmin takes a sip of his drink, looking to the side in a conspicuous manner. Minhyun clears his throat, looking slightly uncomfortable while Jaehwan almost leans on the table with excitement that this subject was brought up, a sadistic smile on his face. Seongwoo takes the blow but maintains his composure, staring at Woojin with no reaction at all. The restaurant around them suddenly seems all too quiet, too different from the buzz from before.

 

“Why do you say that?” Jaehwan asks, still smiling.

 

“There’s a tension.” The boy motions with his hands though it doesn’t say anything. “I don’t know. I just felt it, okay?”

 

Jaehwan nods then looks back to Seongwoo. “Boy is good with relationships. He’ll probably win.”

 

“No, Daehwi will win,” Minhyun points out. “Boy is a genius.”

 

“Thanks for trusting me. I really appreciate it,” Seonho says while pouting and Minhyun sends him a pleasant smile that melts the boy right away. The handsome son of a bitch.

 

“Wait. You really don’t know the story?” Jaehwan asks Woojin, who stares at him, doe-eyed, the perfect portrait of innocence. Seongwoo almost wonders if maybe he already knows and is just bringing the subject up for the sadism of it. “I thought it was already a legend around the office.”

 

“Shut up, Jaehwan. Gossiping about people’s personal lives is not very nice,” Donghyun says and Seongwoo feels a wave of affection for the boy running through him. But of course, Jaehwan doesn’t shut up. Of course, he’s already putting on a story-telling face, excited all over from seeing Seongwoo’s misery.

 

“It all started at the beginning of last year. Around March. It was around March, right?”

 

Sewoon nods. “Yeah, they hooked up for the first time at Jisung’s birthday party.”

 

“How do you know that, you creep?” Seongwoo asks, positively terrified.

 

Youngmin looks surprised. “You stood on the table and shouted to everyone that you kissed Kang Daniel.”

 

Seongwoo blinks once. Then twice. “Fair point.”

 

“But anyway. It was our first year together, most of us had just gotten on board of the startup back then, and everybody around the office was already betting they’d end up dating, or at least hooking up. It was the bet of the century.”

 

“I made a lot of money that night,” Sewoon recollects, looking nostalgic. Seongwoo throws a napkin at him.

 

“Yeah, yeah, we all know you ended up rich.” He looks at Woojin. “And then we broke up almost a year later. End of the story,” Seongwoo says and Woojin widens his eyes, surprised. Donghyun makes a sad face, while Jaehwan just seems pissed that Seongwoo cut his story in half and ruined all the fun. “And don’t ask why.”

 

Woojin blinks. “But why?”

 

“I said don’t ask, kid. What part of don’t ask didn’t you understand?”

 

“But now I’m curious!” Woojin presses on, shoving a piece of meat in his mouth.

 

Jaehwan obviously sees his cue, “We had a competition at the beginning of this year too. Like what, around February?”

 

“Around February,” Sewoon agrees.

 

“It wasn’t as big as this one. Tt was just a really small change on the app interface. But whoever won would get a decent raise and a whole pack of beer. Jisung loves his little games, the old man.”

 

Donghyun makes another disapproving face, and Seongwoo once again feels filled with that very same kind of love. He makes a mental note to squish him some moment soon. Also to pay for his drinks.

 

“In any case. Both Niel and Seongwoo were a part of it and Seongwoo ended up winning. Victory didn’t come without a price though.”

 

Woojin furrows his eyebrows, looking completely exasperated. “You two broke up because of that? That’s lame!”

 

Seongwoo sighs. “Our projects were very similar. Mine was basically an updated version of his. But he saw me messing with his computer this one time at his home and assumed I copied his code as a joke,” he explains with a shrug, and when he notices Woojin is looking at him with a horrified expression, he adds, “Which I didn’t.”

 

“Did he ever apologize to you about that, by the way?” Youngmin asks, resting his glass on the table and Seongwoo laughs, humorless.

 

“Once, I think? I mean, he tried but I cut him off.”

 

Youngmin makes a disapproving face. “That’s not nice.”

 

“Well, being accused of cheating by your own boyfriend isn’t nice either!”

 

“Okay,” Minhyun cuts them off. “Enough. That’s ancient history anyway. Let’s move on.”

 

Sewoon squints his eyes at him. “It’s been like, literally four months”

 

“Anyway,” Seongwoo continues, completely ignoring Sewoon, “we don’t talk anymore and that’s it.”

 

Woojin stays quiet for a while as they all continue to eat. “That’s sad. Daniel is super cool.”

 

“He’s not super cool. I am super cool,” Seongwoo says, completely wrathful, as if the fact that Woojin thinks Daniel is cool means he can’t think Seongwoo is also really cool. “I am paying for your meat, you ungrateful brat.”

 

From his side, Youngmin frowns. “He is cool, though. I miss when we could all hang out together like normal co-workers...”

 

“Yeah,” Jaehwan agrees. “Now we have to keep doing separate hangouts because you guys can’t handle being in the same place for long. We don’t get enough money for that!”

 

Seongwoo is distraught. “I work with the asshole every fucking day!”

 

“He’s good looking though, isn’t he?” Donghyun says as if that’s a sensible thing to say all of the sudden. The love Seongwoo has been feeling for the boy suddenly leaves him all at once. No more drinks for you, Kim Donghyun. But thankfully he doesn’t need to say anything because Youngmin is already sending the boy an ugly look.

 

“What does that even have to do with anything?”

 

“No, he has a point,” Sewoon agrees and now Youngmin seems doubly annoyed. “How do you fight with a man like Daniel? How do you break up with him? I wouldn't.”

 

“By being betrayed,” Seongwoo says, and Minhyun starts waving his hand in front of himself while squinting his eyes in that way he does whenever he thinks something is foolish.

 

“This is foolish,” Minhyun states and Seongwoo is grateful that he at least has him to be on his side and not keep talking about Kang Daniel and how handsome and awesome he is all the time. “If he says they’re over, it’s over. That’s it.”

 

“This is sad,” Daehwi finally says as he leans his face on his hands, chopsticks between his fingers. It’s the first thing he’s said the whole night. He has a cute pout and is looking at Seongwoo with bright eyes. “I always think it’s sad when love doesn’t work out, you know?”

 

That works in sending a jolt in Seongwoo’s chest. He feels it in his heart and then all the way down to his bones. He also thinks it’s sad that they didn’t work out, he also thinks it’s a pity. He also thinks it’s sad that Daniel is not here right now, joking around, laughing at every stupid joke just like he always does. It’s sad.

 

Then he crosses that thought out and places it back where it came from. There’s no point thinking about that. No point in being this touched by Lee Daehwi and his romanticism. He and Daniel are through and that’s it. There’s no coming back. No coming back at all.

 

“You’re far too kind for your own good, Daehwi,” Seongwoo tells him and then he lazily hugs Woojin, looking at his intern with a wicked smile. “You know what is going to be sad, though? When we crush Daniel’s team into the ground.”

 

Much to his delight, Woojin replies to that with one of his winning smiles.

 

“Yeah!” he shouts, punching the table which makes everyone around them send them a disapproving glare. “Let’s fuck them up!”

 

 

* * *

 

 

Their little company is still pretty much that: very little.

 

It had all started three years ago from Yoon Jisung’s desire to, and Seongwoo always quotes the exact sentence he had said back then, “get rich as fuck.” It was an idea his friend had one day after getting tired of trying and trying to find the real match in several dates and always failing: developing a dating app that would basically do the work for you. It was pretty simple, actually. The users would make profiles and answer some very specific questions about themselves that they should answer truthfully. The app would then find several people that would match with their answers, even giving ideas for dates and topics to talk about. It was pretty cool and at first and it got a little hype mostly around college students in the first few months.

 

But then it just exploded.

 

They don’t even properly remember how it happened. Back then they were just a startup consisted of Jisung, Daniel, Seongwoo, Sungwoon, and Minhyun, working mostly from home. But then they started getting bigger, needing more people, more staff. They started needing people to maintain the app, people to reply to customers and to offers of sponsorship. Jisung first rented an office so they could work better as a team and then he decided to get a loan and spend much more money on their startup in a daring move and bought a place (with the help of his parents and wife), which was small, of course. They decorated as they went but that now, it was their little home. From five people their staff doubled in a year, and they even opened spots for interns who were still in college.

 

Overall, The Real Match is doing pretty fine. As of now, just as the pinned sign on their office reads, they’re the number one dating app in the entirety of Seoul, third in South Korea.

 

Seongwoo stares at the sign, feeling proud. When he left college he never thought this would be the sort of place he’d end up working at. A programmer like himself would only think of working at some typical company. He used to be able to see himself stuck in a 9-to-5 job, wearing a suit, sticking to the same routine every single day for the rest of his life.

 

When he thinks of this, he’s glad he met Jisung.

 

Life in The Real Match wasn’t a really profitable one. They started to make money, real money, only a few months ago. But his working hours have always been flexible, and the office is fun – nothing boring like white walls and tones of gray or anything too hectic. Their place is filled with color and live action figurines they ended up bringing to the office, their desks are in the middle of the room and not separated by drywall compartments, and they could walk and talk freely. They have their own desks, but they could also work wherever they please as long as the work got done. They have happy hours basically every night and a ping pong table upstairs. There was a reason so many kids from college wanted to be their interns even if they didn’t pay as much as bigger companies – working for them was light-hearted, free of the pressure and pain a lot of his college friends were going through right now.

 

Well. Working here is as fun as it gets when you’re working with your ex.

 

Seongwoo doesn’t even notice when Daniel joins him in the kitchen. He’s like a snake, sneakily crawling around and giving Seongwoo the scare of his life. Daniel rolls his eyes at his exaggerated reactions, another little thing that gets on Seongwoo’s nerves. Daniel used to laugh at everything he did but now suddenly he’s very picky about his jokes. Which Seongwoo thinks is just really rich coming from him when it was Daniel who accused him of doing shit he never even did. If anyone had the right to be angry it was Seongwoo himself, though, when he thinks about it properly, Daniel never really seems angry or annoyed. He just seems awkward.

 

He is about to leave with his coffee without saying a word when Daniel’s voice halts him to a stop. “So,” he starts, “is this how it’s going to be between us now?”

 

He asks, and Seongwoo is ready. He turns around, stance defensive, eyebrows raised in an expression that he knows reads as ‘try me, bitch.’ It’s weird how quickly his body reacts before he even thinks of a response, all of his body suddenly fueled by anger. He’s never been one for those sort of reactions, but this is the power Daniel has over him, it seems.

 

“What do you mean?”

 

Daniel scoffs. “You’re just going to ignore me whenever we’re in the same room?” He stares at him, coffee in hand, and he’s smiling. Smiling! Now Seongwoo is positively pissed. “Can’t we just talk? Like adults?”

 

“You just rolled your eyes at me, Kang Daniel. That’s no way of rekindling a friendship.”

 

The tall idiot has the guts to roll his eyes again. “Well, you were being stupid. Exaggerating shit for attention and stuff! As if you didn’t even see me walking into the room!”

 

“I did not–” he stutters, horrified. “I did not exaggerate anything for your attention. I never did that!”

 

“You always do it! Whenever we fought, you always did the same thing!” He reenacts the way Seongwoo jumps when he saw him and he could punch him. Right now, Ong Seongwoo, a well-known pacifist, could just punch him.

 

And, being the very mature person that he is, the only thing Seongwoo can say to that is: “Fuck off, Daniel. Fuck all the way off, okay?”

 

“You’re unbelievable!” Daniel sighs, exhausted. “It’s like we can’t talk anymore without arguing.”

 

“And whose fault is that?” Seongwoo says back and to this Daniel doesn’t seem to have a reply. He just stares at him and then to the ground and there’s this thing in Seongwoo’s heart that shifts. He hates this thing. He hates it so much. He hates every single part of his body that still feels moved only at the sight of Daniel’s anguished expression.

 

“I already said I’m sorry, okay?” the man says and it’s a whisper and nothing more. Seongwoo just wants to be out of here. This is pathetic because the only thought that comes to him is that sorry is not good enough and that’s the biggest cliché in the world (and also a very bad British boy band song) and Seongwoo doesn’t like clichés. He doesn’t like clichés and he doesn’t like being played for a fool. He also doesn’t like the face Daniel is making at him now, and he doesn’t like the way it makes him feel.

 

He inhales and then lets the air out. Fuck. He needs a smoke.

 

“Have a nice day of work,” he says, and he turns around, leaves the kitchen and walks towards his usual desk. He takes a sip of his coffee and winces. It’s cold.

 

God fucking damn it, Kang Daniel, always ruining everything!

 

 

* * *

 

 

Joining his own dating app seems pathetic but Seongwoo feels really pathetic tonight. There’s just something that really screams pathetic about a 26-year-old man choosing to spend his Friday night at home eating ice cream and watching the same episode of Hell’s Kitchen for the third time because they keep repeating the same season over and over. So why not take the next step and make matters worse? Seem reasonable.

 

So, he updates his old profile that he hasn’t used in a long while, changes his picture to a newer one, spending exactly 2 hours to find the perfect one. Then he places his phone to the side and goes back to watching TV, pretending he doesn’t care about whoever the profile found for him or if anyone has said hi.

 

Until his phone buzzes.

 

Seongwoo almost dives to pick it up, staring at the screen with interest. The picture of the guy who just started a conversation with him was a little weird, a little out of focus. Those sort of pictures that only show people a little, not the whole face. That should be a turn-off but Seongwoo is needy and desperate. And he seems cute enough by the shape of his neck. The app is also telling him that they have a lot in common. So, he gives it a shot.

 

It’s just something to pass the time on a pathetic Friday night, after all. Nothing serious.

 

**yoo jiho**

hey!

we just got matched it seems

the app is telling me to talk to u about overwatch and that seems a little awkward

 

**ong seongwoo**

lol

hey stranger

lol sorry i'll be awkward af it has been literal years since the last time  chatted here

and pls do not talk to me about ovw

i'm over it

 

Or basically what he means is that it used to be my ex-boyfriend’s hobby that I picked up to play together with him but ever since we broke up I can't even hear Mercy’s voice without wanting to kill myself.

 

He doesn't elaborate on that, though.

 

**yoo jiho**

ah, rly?

that's sad

no inviting you for matches then

 

Seongwoo laughs a little.

 

**ong seongwoo**

well there's plenty of other things u can invite me to

dinner, movies, long walks on the beach

i'm a man of many interests

 

**yoo jiho**

that's straightforward

i like it

well ill think about what i could invite you to

a handsome guy like you

i'm sure i won't be running out of ideas

 

Seongwoo pauses, reads it again, feels that feeling that only flirting brings – that lightness of his heart and chest, some sort of dizziness. He smiles at this stranger’s words, the idea that he’s still got it crossing his mind.

 

Who needs Kang Daniel anyway?

 

 

* * *

 

 

“Boss,” Woojin says, placing both hands on Seongwoo’s desk.

 

He looks up, eyes wide, brows up. “Yes?”

 

Woojin squints. “Is it okay if I call you boss?”

 

“Yeah,” Seongwoo smiles happily. “I like it very much.”

 

Woojin smiles back, snaggletooth and all. “I’ve finished the Perfect Match feature.”

 

Seongwoo almost jumps from his chair. He knew Woojin was good but not good enough to develop a whole feature in two days. He opens it, excited. The interface is a little ugly, but Jisung never said in the challenge that they’d have to make it pretty.

 

“So,” he asks, looking at the screen. There’s a picture of Seongwoo and right after there was a huge button with “Perfect Match” written. “How did you do this?”

 

“It was quite easy, actually,” he said, “My sister is a psychologist so I just asked her about love and shit. We found some of the questions our users have to answer when they’re subscribing to the app and I rolled out some algorithms and voilà!” He smiles again, hands on his waist in a proud, powerful position. “Great, right?”

 

Seongwoo gives him a thumbs up. “Sounds genius.”

 

“I know. My sister actually said we can even improve on the questions. Maybe when they look for a perfect match we can make some more meaningful questions. You know. What’s your inspiration in life? What is your favorite action movie? Oh, oh, if you were in Harry Potter, which house would you be in?”

 

He squints his eyes at Woojin. “Ravenclaw, of course.”

 

“Ew,” Woojin makes a face. “Nerd.”

 

“Okay, okay, let’s try this.” Seongwoo inhales deeply and Woojin is close behind, expectant. “Wait, you haven’t tried it yet?”

 

“No, not really.”

 

“Jesus,” and then he presses the button.

 

There was a circle around his picture that shined exactlythree times. Then another picture showed up, right by Seongwoo’s side.

 

He almost threw his phone against the wall.

 

“Oh,” said Woojin.

 

“This is bullshit,” Seongwoo says, giving Woojin’s phone back. “Get this shit the hell out of here.”

 

“But I’m sure it’s right! I did everything right! I’m sure.”

 

“Code it again.”

 

“But–”

 

“Do it!”

 

They have a stare off for a minute and then Woojin crosses his arms, defiant face on. “Well., maybe the app is right and your perfect match is Daniel.”

 

“Shut up! This is bullshit. Get this app the hell out of here,” Seongwoo says and when Woojin doesn’t move, he gets even more annoyed. He can’t believe the audacity of this kid. Coming to him, giving him hopes that they’d win the challenge, and then telling him, to his face, that his perfect match is Kang Daniel of all people. The fucking nerve! “If you think it’s so true then why don’t you try it on yourself.”

 

Woojin rolls his eyes, opens the app again, now on his profile. Then he gets closer to Seongwoo and presses the “Perfect Match!” button and the two of them wait for the results, Woojin with a disdainful smile, Seongwoo with fire in his eyes.

 

When the picture of his perfect match shows up Woojin closes the app instantly.

 

“Well,” he says, “I guess I made it wrong.”

 

Seongwoo smiles a wicked smile. “Really? Are you sure?”

 

“Yeah,” Woojin says and his expression is dark and grim. Seongwoo resists the urge of laughing his ass off. “I’m pretty sure.”

 

 

* * *

 

 

**yoo jiho**

hey.

what u up to?

 

His phone buzzes and Seongwoo picks it up so fast it draws a curious look from Jaehwan.

 

**ong seongwoo**

working :(

why? what are u up to? don’t u work? lol

 

**yoo jiho**

i doooo

i just wanted to talk to u

why do u have to go and break the mood ㅠㅠㅠㅠㅠㅠㅠㅠ

 

Seongwoo laughs and once again Jaehwan looks at him, brows furrowed. For the first time in his life, he’s jealous of men who have boring private offices. So, he stands up, decides it’s time for a smoking break.

 

**ong seongwoo**

lolol

sorry

what's ur job?

 

**yoo jiho**

boring salaryman

i know. i know. with this face you were imagining i was something fun and exciting

 

**ong seongwoo**

salaryman was exactly what i thought

 

**yoo jiho**

why u gotta be so meeeeean

cut me some slack

i’m trying to sound cool!

 

**ong seongwoo**

you sound cool!!

also

you just talked about your face as if i’ve ever seen it

when will you post a picture that ppl can actually see your face in?

that’s quite unfair

 

He stops when he reaches the stairs. An intellectual like him knows that going down the stairs while on his phone could result in a lot of broken bones. So, he walks down and stops by the doorway to check for a reply. To his surprise, there’s still none.

 

Seongwoo opens the door and the warm air of June hits him hard, the contrast a little too much with the air conditioner on the inside. But this is not what bothers him the most. What bothers him the most is that just by the side of the door is no one other than Kang Daniel, leaning against the wall, looking at his phone while biting on his bottom lip – a habit that Seongwoo knows quite well. He’s thinking. And he’s thinking about something serious.

 

When Daniel sees him, he promptly shoves his phone in his pocket, eyes going wide for a second before settling into an expression that Seongwoo doesn’t quite understand. Which is weird, because he thought he was quite proficient in Daniel. They used to spend so much time together Seongwoo always felt he could read Daniel like a book, and one of the easy sort. With big letters and lots of figures. But now he was written in another language, all off and odd, out of his reach.

 

It hurts a little.

 

“Sorry,” Daniel says and for a second there Seongwoo wonders what for. He feels like he has heard Daniel say sorry to him for the most ridiculous shit these last weeks.

 

“For?” Seongwoo asks, brow raised as he picks up a cigarette. “For existing here?”

 

Daniel stiffens, obviously awkward. “If I’m being that annoying just by standing here I can leave.”

 

There’s something weird.

 

For the most part when they got into arguments since their break-up Daniel was always confrontational, he’d always say something back, even if it was something stupid like “your mom!”

 

But this right now is new. This softness, this willingness to just get things over with. It makes Seongwoo suddenly anxious, suddenly weirded out. It disappoints him, makes him a little desperate though he doesn’t quite understand why.

 

“You can stay wherever you want,” Seongwoo replies, feeling stupid. “It’s a free country.”

 

Daniel stares at him for a while before leaning back against the wall, though his stance now is anything but relaxed. He seems stiff, eyes always darting toward Seongwoo as he takes a drag of his cigarette. Daniel doesn’t say a thing but Seongwoo can almost hear the comments going through his mind. When he doesn’t voice them, Seongwoo looks back.

 

“Go on,” he starts. “Say it.”

 

Daniel scoffs. “I have nothing to say.”

 

“Just say it, Daniel.”

 

They stare at each other for a while until Daniel finally gives in. “I just didn’t know you were smoking again.”

 

Seongwoo shrugs. “Yeah. I forgot to tell you.”

 

His ex sends him an ugly look. “I thought you quit.”

 

“I did.”

 

“Then started over again?”

 

“Guess I went through a troublesome situation. You know how I get when I’m anxious.” He smiles cynically and Daniel looks away. There’s a memory that comes here – Daniel hates the smell of cigarettes. He’d go on and on about how unhealthy it was, how his teeth would get yellow, how he’d die at the age of 30. Until it got to a point where Seongwoo just slowly stopped, not because of Daniel’s nagging, but mostly because he knew he didn’t like it. And he wanted to please him.

 

So, Seongwoo guesses it was obvious that he’d go back to old habits once they were through. Even more, because he unconsciously knew it’d get his attention at some point. That thought makes him wince, annoyed. That can’t be the truth. He will go on with his life pretending that he never went back to smoking only so Daniel would pay attention and nag at him again. That’s an absurd thought.

 

“It’s just–” Daniel starts, “It’s not good for you.”

 

Seongwoo shrugs, finishes his cigarette. “It’s not like it’s any of your business anymore, Daniel.”

 

“Yeah,” he says, and there’s a softness in his tone that pulls on Seongwoo’s heartstrings. “But it’s not like I suddenly stopped caring about you.”

 

This is unfair, Seongwoo thinks. His whole tone, his whole demeanor, the way he looks at him, the way he looks right now—it’s all completely unfair. It pisses him off and yet makes him hurt, crave. And he shouldn’t. Feeling any sort of way for Kang Daniel right now is signing his stupid death certificate.

 

He knows it and he still lingers, and Daniel is the first one to look away, back to his hands. Seongwoo clears his throat.

 

“I,” he starts, “I’m not even smoking that much. Really.”

 

He looks up and then down, and then to the door. In a second, he’s walking away as fast as he can.

 

 

* * *

 

 

“It’s been a while since we’ve done this.”

 

“Well, sure. You took his side.”

 

Jisung stares at him with squinted eyes, a finger pointed at his face. “You know that’s not true.”

 

“It is.”

 

“He’s been my best friend since he was eight!”

 

Seongwoo puts his drink down on the counter, staring back a Jisung with pity. “Don’t you think that’s sad? You were a thirteen-year-old and your best friend wasn’t even ten.”

 

Jisung sighs. “He was like a little brother to me and you know it. I had friends my age!”

 

“Sure” Seongwoo pauses. “Nerd.”

 

“Listen,” Jisung says, a little bit louder now that the chatting around them has also grown louder. The bar is full, of course. Which bar in the whole of Seoul isn’t full after working hours? “Minhyun took your side, I took his. It’s all fair.”

 

“Yeah, but I miss you.” He punches Jisung’s sides cutely and of course that has his friend smiling. Jisung is a weakling and Seongwoo loves it. “Also. Minhyun doesn’t count.”

 

The way Jisung stares at him is enough for Seongwoo to know what he is about to say. “Why? Because he’s into you and basically took your side so that when you’re over Niel you two can hook up?”

 

Well.

 

That was a little more straightforward than Seongwoo was expecting.

 

“No?” he lies. “It’s because he’s not the boss!” Then he notices a little detail in what Jisung’s said. “Also. I’m already over Daniel.”

 

His friend scoffs. “Yeah. Sure.”

 

“I am!”

 

Jisung nods with a cute fake as fuck smile. Seongwoo could kill him.

 

“I’ll kill you.”

 

His friend looks at him with disbelief. “You hid in the bathroom today when he was coming down the hall.”

 

“I did not?” He stops, knowing that there’s no point in lying here. “You saw that? You creep.”

 

“I was in the bathroom, Seongwoo.”

 

There’s an awkward second of silence. “I’m over him.”

 

Jisung nods, takes a sip of his drink. “You don’t have to say it so many times,” he says, “but if I can be honest with you–”

 

“Don’t.”

 

“– can you stop using Minhyun to get to him? It’s getting ugly.”

 

Now, this is a surprise. Seongwoo almost chokes on his drink, looking at his old friend with wide eyes. “I am not doing that?”

 

“You are.”

 

“No!”

 

“Maybe you’re unconsciously doing it, but you are.”

 

Seongwoo stares at Jisung, obviously confused. He doesn’t remember any of this. He and Minhyun have been good friends since the latter joined the company. Truth be told, Seongwoo knows Minhyun has a slight crush on him, just like everyone else in the company has a crush on Minhyun. Even Daniel once told him, while they were still together nonetheless, that he’d kiss Hwang Minhyun anytime, any day. He’s the sort of guy who’s too handsome for his own good and has a nice personality to boot. He’s an overkill, overpowered, and almost scary. Sometimes Seongwoo wishes he’d just go with the flow and see what happens.

 

But what pisses Seongwoo off is how his mind goes from thought number one about how well he gets along well Minhyun to thought two, which is the subliminal message in Jisung’s words. He clears his throat. He hates it when his ugly side shows like this, but no human is perfect, right? No one but Hwang Minhyun who is, in Woojin’s words, an actual AI.

 

“Did it get to him, though?” he asks, trying his best to sound nonchalant. But Jisung’s expression softens, and he breathes out slowly before asking for two more shots.

 

“You two should just talk.”

 

“Did he talk to you about me?”

 

“Listen, Seongwoo. I’m not your matchmaker or whatever. So whatever Niel tells me I’m not going to come here and tell you. And stop making that cute face, it won’t sway me!”

 

Seongwoo pauses, stops with his pout, thoughtful. “I don’t want to be an ass to Minhyun, though,” he says and he means it. Minhyun is his friend, a good friend, and an attractive one at that. He feels bad that he’s been maybe using him as a way to get to Daniel. “Can I unconsciously flirt with you, then?”

 

Jisung just seems completely done with him. “Seongwoo. I’m married.”

 

“A mere detail!”

 

“Also, why would you want to do that?” Jisung asks, drink in hand, “Do you want to get to Niel? I thought you just said you were over him.”

 

The man opens his mouth and then closes it. Then he thinks of a witty and sarcastic reply but it doesn’t work. He pauses again, drinks his whole drink in one go.

 

“Shut up, old man,” is all he says.

 

 

* * *

 

 

When he’s back home he’s drunk and stupid. Stupid enough to trip while taking off his shoes and stupid enough to be thinking about Kang Daniel. He lays down on his couch, still wearing his working clothes, a tightness in his chest that doesn’t match the lightness in his head. Seongwoo closes his eyes. What a weak man he is.

 

He thinks a phone call wouldn’t hurt, though. It’s not like he’s forgiving Daniel for what he did. It’s not like he wants to go back to him. He just wants to hear his voice, and that sounds like a reasonable thing to do with his ex-boyfriend. He’s sure it’s reasonable. He looks down to his dog—a small, a little too fat pug—who is excitedly playing with his left shoe. Seongwoo asks him if it’s reasonable for him to call his ex to tell him he misses him terribly and the dog barks once.

 

The dog knows best.

 

Seongwoo is picking up his phone from his pocket, Daniel’s name already close to the touch of his finger when a new message comes in from mysterious app guy, Yoo Jiho. He pauses, finger midway from calling Daniel when he decides to open the new message instead.

 

**yoo jiho**

  1. how’s your evening?



did you go out drinking tonight?

i’m jealous

 

He stares, smiles. Saved by a stranger.

 

**ong seongwoo**

yup! boss bought me some drinks

wbu?

 

**yoo jiho**

stayed at home

played with my cats and then some games

boring, right

 

**ong seongwoo**

u know that’s bad flirting, right?

if u want me to talk to u u can’t show that sort of pathetic side!

 

**yoo jiho**

lololol

i’m a man who believes in being real

also.

this new profile picture of yours looks rly good

 

**ong seongwoo**

now that’s some flirting

 

Then he stops.

 

He hasn’t changed his profile picture since he re-started the app. So how could mystery dude Yoo Jiho know that he had changed it? He furrows his brows at his phone, confused. He doesn’t remember chatting with any Yoo Jiho before, and to be honest he rarely used the app back in his single days since he’d been hitting on Daniel for months. He thinks of asking what he means, but there’s this faint feeling that makes him suspicious. Seongwoo decides to play dumb.

 

**ong seongwoo**

you thought the other was ugly? :(

 

**yoo jiho**

i never said that??

insecurity doesn’t suit u, ong

 

And then, there it is.

 

Seongwoo sits down, stares at the nickname Yoo Jiho has just called him. This is not new. This is not something he’s not used to being called by, but also not by just anyone. He opens the boy’s picture again. He’s hiding his face, and even when Seongwoo had asked him for a full picture he sent none. He had found that weird but, well, it’s not like he was planning to meet him or anything. He enjoyed talking to him and that’s all.

 

He looks closely at the shape of the boy’s neck, the glimpse of his hair. There’s this suspicion that rises up in him but he can’t fucking believe it. He looks at the background of the picture and realization hits him and the “fuck” he shouts to himself is probably heard by his neighbor.

 

Seongwoo runs to his desk, opens up his laptop and enters the administrator site for the app. He searches for yoo jiho’s user and checks his IP, and then proceeds to look for another user, someone he knows quite well, slapping his hand on the desk when he sees that the IP is the very much the same. He can’t believe this shit. He can’t believe he’d stoop this low. Fucking shit. The dumbass wasn’t even smart enough to use another IP, or upload a picture of someone else? Couldn’t he at least try to make this a little bit more convincing?

 

He slaps the desk again.

 

God damn it, Kang Daniel.

 

 

* * *

 

 

When he arrives at the office that morning the mood seems to be on the rise. He sees that Youngmin, Daehwi, and Donghyun are leaning against the wall with amused expressions, watching as a scene of some sort unfolds near the windows. Closer to the actual scene is Minhyun, who seems slightly concerned while Jaehwan is laughing his ass off. Seongwoo recognizes one of the loud voices and walks closer, brows furrowing when he notices the protagonists of the scene.

 

On one side is Park Jihoon, arms crossed, stance defensive, expression of utter contempt facing none other than Park Woojin, who seems ready to start a fight. In the middle of the two is Daniel with his arms spread open, palms up, as if he has just separated the two of them.

 

“Stop,” Daniel is saying, looking from one to the other. “Fighting won’t solve anything.”

 

“It’ll solve that ugly face of his. Maybe some punches will put it in its place.”

 

The gasp Jihoon leaves out is horrified. “Look who the fuck is talking about being ugly.”

 

“Shut up!”

 

“You shut up!” And with that Jihoon is walking toward Woojin again, all threatening with that pretty face of his, and Daniel is holding him back as swearing starts from both ends.

 

Seongwoo looks at Minhyun. “Why is no one doing anything?”

 

“Probably because Jisung didn’t arrive yet and this is sort of amusing,” Minhyun replies. “Also it’s not like they’re really going to fight–”

 

“Ouch,” Daniel shouts. “Park, Jihoon you pulled my fucking hair!”

 

“– I think,” Minhyun adds, now seeming actually worried. The two of them then step up, Seongwoo placing a hand on Woojin’s chest, while Minhyun holds Jihoon away from Daniel.

 

“Come on, Woojin, calm down!”

 

Woojin doesn’t calm down. “I’ll fuck him up!”

 

“Ha,” Jihoon shouts back, “I want to see you try, you little–”

 

“Enough, enough,” Minhyun is saying and Daniel fixes himself up, looking with a thankful expression at both Seongwoo and Minhyun. “Come on, Jihoon, let’s go somewhere else–”

 

“I don’t want to go somewhere else,” Jihoon says, indignant, “I want to beat that little shit to filth and th–”

 

“I’ll pay your food,” Minhyun offers and the younger’s expression changes instantly before he mumbles an okay, and the two of them make their leave. Only when Jihoon is out of the room does Woojin stop staring at him with all the rage in his whole soul, back straightening, and expression softening. The boy sighs deeply, and the way he speaks is so nonchalant that it’s almost like he wasn’t just about to punch Park Jihoon in the face.

 

“He gets on my nerves.”

 

Seongwoo laughs. “So I’ve noticed.”

 

“I hate him.”

 

“You know there’s a thin line between love and hate, right?” He says and the amount of hatred in Woojin’s stare is enough to make Seongwoo put his arms up in surrender. “Okay. I’m sorry.”

 

“What the hell was that?” They hear and Seongwoo turns around, meeting Daniel all too close. He takes a step back and Daniel looks at him quickly before looking back to Woojin.

 

Seongwoo feels all sorts of things now. He remembers their last meeting, remembers what Daniel had said. He remembers finding out that Daniel is the one mystery guy from the app, flirting him up while using a goddamn fake account. Yesterday that discovery had filled him with rage and annoyance, but right now, seeing him up close, it just tugs at his chest in a weird, twisted way that he doesn’t quite get.

 

“He started it! You saw it!”

 

Daniel pauses. “Yes,” he says, and then says nothing else for a while. Woojin makes a victory face. “But, you were the one who tried to punch him first.”

 

“He challenged me too!”

 

“You should’ve ignored him!” Daniel says, exasperated, looking at Seongwoo who nods, looks back at Woojin.

 

“It hurts me to say this but he’s right,” he says. “We all know Jihoon is always going around saying ‘I dare you to fight me’ to everyone. He even said it to Yeri, and you know how that turned out.”

 

Woojin shakes his head. “Park Woojin never walks away from a challenge.”

 

“Park Woojin is a dumb idiot, then.” Seongwoo jabs him and for the flash of a second, thinks Woojin might hit him. But all he does is shake his head, muttering something about people not understanding him, and then pick up his phone and almost shove it in Seongwoo’s face.

 

“I’ve made the changes to The Perfect Match.”

 

“Oh, great!” He says and then both of them look at Daniel at the exact same time, who just looks like a confused puppy. An adorable cute lost puppy.

 

For fuck’s sake.

 

“Look at him trying to spy on us,” Woojin says, making a face of faux-suspicion, squinting his eyes exaggeratedly. Daniel looks even more confused now.

 

“He’s going to steal our ideas,” Seongwoo jokes in a lighthearted manner and it’s only later that the full implication of it hits him, and there’s no way of taking back what he said. Daniel widens his eyes a little, expression hurt, though he wonders if anyone else would notice. Daniel is such an open book but most people take him as this goof (which sure, he is) that doesn’t understand anything when Seongwoo knows that’s not the case at all.

 

“I didn’t mean to,” he starts and Seongwoo doesn’t even notice when he smiles and places a hand on Daniel’s shoulder, squeezing it slightly. Daniel looks up at him, surprised. Seongwoo would probably also look up at himself, surprised, if he could.

 

“Lighten up, dude. It’s just a joke,” he says and his voice cracks around the end because it’s just odd to be saying this. Daniel is staring at him as if he’s looking for something in his eyes, a hint, anything. But then he smiles, open and bright and Seongwoo dies a little on the inside.

 

It’s a pathetic thing, really. To notice just how much of a hold of his heart Daniel still has.

 

“I’m off then,” he says, winking at Woojin, who cheesily winks back.

 

When they’re alone Woojin has a smug smile on his face.

 

“Wash that off,” Seongwoo says, and his smile just grows smugger, “I mean it.”

 

“Okay, I won’t say a thing,” he says, still smiling. “Check the app.”

 

Seongwoo picks Woojin’s phone. “What did you change?”

 

“I made the algorithm more specific. My sis helped me sort out the most important questions. But I think it’s good now.”

 

Seongwoo glares at him. “Did you test it this time?”

 

“I tested it with Daehwi and it gave him Jinyoung. So yeah, I’m sure it’s good. Also, mine wasn’t him this time so.” He smiles proudly.

 

Seongwoo nods and then presses “The Perfect Match” button right beneath his picture.

 

He watches his picture glow for exactly three times. Then he frowns, lips pressed into a thin line as he almost throws the phone at Woojin’s face.

 

“Do it again.”

 

“BUT–”

 

“DO IT AGAIN!”

 

Woojin pauses, staring at him with resentment. “Maybe my app is right and you should just suck it up and go talk to him.”

 

Seongwoo almost kills him with his glare. “I swear to god, Park Woojin.”

 

“Alright,” he says through gritted teeth, and then lower, “God damn it, you’re so damn stupid.”

 

He pretends he didn’t hear him.

 

 

* * *

 

 

This time Seongwoo is the first one to hit Kang Daniel The Fake up.

 

**ong seongwoo**

hello, faceless man

how u doing?

 

He sits down on his couch, a bag of chips on his lap and some drama playing as background noise. It takes a while for Daniel to reply.

 

**yoo jiho**

yo

still awake?

lol i’m not faceless

just shy :)

 

“Yeah, right,” Seongwoo mutters to his phone.

 

**ong seongwoo**

i want to see you!!

that’s not fair

you’ve seen all of me already!

 

**yoo jiho**

well, not all of you (:

 

Seongwoo widens his eyes. Wow, Kang Daniel. _Kinky._

 

**ong seongwoo**

pervert

come on

send me some pics

 

**yoo jiho**

idk

i like the mystery

it keeps you interested

 

That makes Seongwoo laugh. He feels like some stupid teenager, giggling at his phone, clinging to it for dear life while wearing cartoon socks and pajamas.

 

**ong seongwoo**

i’m starting to think you’re some

50-year-old bald man lying to me

come on

just a little glimpse

don’t leave me hanging

 

He bites on his lower lip as he waits for a reply. This time it takes him longer to reply and Seongwoo can almost see Daniel in his messy room, fidgeting, anxiously trying to think of what to reply, of how to get away from that situation.

 

**yoo jiho**

lol

ok then

does this look like a 50-year-old bald man to you?

_[img attached]_

 

Seongwoo widens his eyes, opening the picture quickly and almost freezing his phone on the process. Mere milliseconds seem to take a whole eternity. When the download finishes and it finally opens he almost chokes on his chips when he sees its content, cheeks getting redder the more that he stares at the picture with wide eyes and an open mouth. And he just can’t stop staring, mouth dry and heavy.

 

There are only two words that he’s able to articulate, baffled:

 

Damn, Daniel.

 

 

* * *

 

 

There are two days left for the launch of The Perfect Match feature. There are already ads circulating around the app interface, and all of the interns have submitted their codes to Jisung which just elevated the mood around them to even higher levels. Everyone is excited so Jisung, of course, decides that on the day of the launch they should hold a party. Nothing fancy, sure, just something for them at his own house, with lots of pizza and lots of booze (for the over-age) and soft drinks (for Seonho).

 

That makes Seongwoo excited because he loves parties at Jisung’s place. Also makes him annoyed because the last time the last time he went there it was on Jisung’s birthday last year and it was the day he and Daniel got together. The memory of the night makes his heart ache as he loses himself in it, and for a second it’s almost like he’s there again: the two of them in the parking lot behind the building, Daniel’s cold fingertips softly touching his cheek, their lips taking so long to finally meet Seongwoo thought nothing could be more torturous but also nothing could be sweeter.

 

He gets a hold of himself, snapping his fingers three times to bring himself back to reality. It’s not a good idea to be thinking about Daniel’s lips. It’s not a good idea to be thinking of how much he misses hugging him, holding his hand, kissing him. Not a good idea to be thinking of that picture he had the nerve to send him a week ago.

 

It’s just not.

 

Also, not a good idea to be thinking about how they’ve been talking on a daily basis on the app and it just makes matters worse. And it’s even worse on nights like these, when he’s basically alone in the office, staying after hours to finish the update they’ll have to launch in just two days. It just makes him want to be done with his workload already just so he can send him a message, see what he’s up to.

 

When he’s done he stretches his arms high up, yawns. Slowly, Seongwoo starts picking up his things ready to make his way out when he pauses midway, startled by a sudden entrance.

 

He sees Daniel making his way downstairs from the second-floor offices, stopping when he spots Seongwoo, almost dropping his cup of coffee.

 

“For fuck’s sake, Ong!” he says and the way he says it is the most adorable thing in the whole world. “You scared the shit out of me!”

 

“Boo,” he says, belatedly, and Daniel sends him an ugly look. The man heads to his desk, sits down, looking exhausted. Seongwoo could just walk away. He would have, weeks ago. He would just walk away and pretend he didn’t even see Daniel. But too much has happened in too little time and the ghost feeling of Daniel’s lips still linger on his own and Seongwoo craves. He doesn’t know what, or he likes to pretend he doesn’t know, but he’s just crawling with want, unspeakable need. Talking to him through a fake on an app is just not enough, not when he has the real thing right here. “Why are you still here?”

 

“Gotta finish the last touches on the new interface of the app. Youngmin just finished the last touches on the design,” Daniel says, tired, “Wanna take a look?”

 

Seongwoo smiles a little. “You know I’m not really good at this aesthetics thing.”

 

Daniel looks at him almost as if he’s begging. “Please? Jisung keeps telling me he trusts me and my judgment, and he looks at me with those eyes that really mean he trusts me. It’s killing me!”

 

This is one of those moments where you know exactly what you should do. Seongwoo knows he should say no and walk away. He knows he should go home and watch an episode of Masked Singer. But instead, he nods, sits down by Daniel’s side, a little too close for comfort, and a little too far for his liking.

 

Ong Seongwoo should write a book one day, and it’d be titled How To Be a Weak Ass Bitch in Five Easy Steps.

 

“It looks good,” Seongwoo says, nodding. “I like the colors.”

 

“I wanted it to be a little cleaner than our current design? More… minimalistic.”

 

“That sure is in,” Seongwoo says, looking at him, and right then Daniel looks back. Their eyes meet and for a split second Seongwoo’s heart does all those weird and complicated maneuvers that have him needing to breathe in deeply so he won’t die. Daniel looks away first, shyly, back at his hand and Seongwoo does the same, looking at the man’s desk. And that when he sees it.

 

He reaches out, picking up the keychain that was hidden in a drawer that was left open, a keychain he knew quite well. Daniel opens his mouth and then closes it, flustered, just as Seongwoo stares at the jewelry more closely. It’s a simple, almost comical keychain, one with a fluffy dog that Seongwoo had bought for Daniel back in Japan. It was his first gift to him as a boyfriend.

 

“You still have this?”

 

“It was a gift,” Daniel says as if that would be enough.

 

The way he says it so simply sends a sharp pain to his chest and Seongwoo couldn’t bear looking at him right now. He looks back at the keychain, places it back down in its drawer. Seongwoo has to remind himself gently how to breathe, one second after the other. He hates it. He hates how with a few words Kang Daniel destroys everything he’s built so carefully, sends him into this mess of emotions that he doesn’t know how to deal with.

 

“That day,” Daniel starts, voice low and soft. “You remember it?”

 

Seongwoo scoffs. Of course, he does. How could he not? For the first time, he traveled abroad and Daniel would video call him every single day. When he came back he went to meet him in the airport and Seongwoo would never forget in this lifetime the huge, beautiful smile he was welcomed with, and then the way Daniel jumped up and down when he gave him that stupid ugly keychain.

 

“I never understood why you liked it so much,” Seongwoo says. “It’s an ugly keychain. Of a stupid dog.”

 

“You gave it to me. That’s why I like it so much.”

 

Seongwoo closes his eyes.

 

He also remembers that on that day Daniel drove him home, and he drove so fast Seongwoo actually got scared they’d get into an accident. He remembers the two of them on the elevator, and he remembers the tension—he remembers it so well he can almost feel it on his fingertips. He remembers Daniel closing the door behind him and turning around, cupping his face, kissing him so intensely Seongwoo’s chest ached.

 

“I missed this,” Daniel had whispered against his lips.

 

I miss you.

 

“I’m sorry,” Daniel says suddenly and Seongwoo looks back at him, confused. “I’m sorry I thought you copied my code. I should've apologized earlier. I tried apologizing, but you– No. No, this is not how I wanted this to go.” A second goes by, and all he does is breathe. “I was scared. You were angry and you had the right to be. I was childish and stupid and I just fucked shit up like I always do. I’m sorry. I’m really sorry.”

 

Seongwoo hears it all without looking at him. He can’t. Not right now, not right here when he feels this hurt.

 

“I’d never do that you,” he says and it catches in his throat. “It hurt me that you thought I would.”

 

“I know,” Daniel says back, “and I’m sorry. I. I don’t think I’ll ever regret anything as much as that.”

 

Seongwoo cackles. “Not even that time I made you go on that rollercoaster and you threw up for three days straight?”

 

Daniel laughs back. “Not even that.”

 

“Not even that time you spent half of your salary buying a foosball table only to realize that you can’t play it alone?”

 

“Nope.”

 

“And what about that time you bought those ugly Adidas shoes with wings and all?”

 

Daniel makes a painful face. “God, those were awful.” Then he pauses. “Nope. Not even that.”

 

“And what ab–”

 

“Stop,” Daniel says, laughing, and he reaches out, touches Seongwoo’s arm. The touch alone is enough to fire him up. He looks down to where Daniel’s hand meets the fabric of his shirt, and then back up and Daniel is staring at him so attentively that it sends a shiver down his spine. “Listen. I. I’m not asking you to fall for me again. Even if I’m still–” He pauses again and Seongwoo burns. Say it, he thinks. Just fucking say i. “I just want us to be friends. That’s all. I want us to talk again like we’ve been talking these days, and I want to be cool with you. That’s all.”

 

Disappointment is an ugly feeling and it settles down in Seongwoo’s stomach. What did he expect, though? A confession? What would he do if Daniel confessed? Would he go back to him, run towards him with open arms? He knows it’s not that easy. He knows because even now he’s still hurt, still in pain. Even now when he looks at him Seongwoo feels a mix of endearment and annoyance, something inside him so twisted by the hurt he felt he can’t just be okay with him all of a sudden.

 

“What I mean is,” Daniel continues when Seongwoo doesn’t say anything, his hand now away from his arm, “I missed you. That’s all.”

 

That’s all, he says, as if it’s nothing. That’s all, he says, and yet it’s everything Seongwoo wanted to hear. He looks at Daniel’s eyes and that cruel need is still there, burning.

 

He wonders if it will ever leave.

 

“I missed you too,” he says back, and when Daniel smiles at him, open and genuine, he knows it. He just knows it.

 

God fucking damn it, Kang fucking Daniel.

 

-

 

The party is already at full speed and it's not even 10 PM yet. Everything is just everywhere and whatever Jisung had thought was a good decoration is all around the floor, scattered everywhere. Seongwoo watches as things go downhill with a proud smile on his face. This is exactly the sort of new generation he wants for their company.

 

He feels a shoulder bumping into his and a new drink being shoved into his hands and he doesn't even need to look to see who is there. He almost pities himself for the way he smiles immediately when he sees who is by his side, also watching as Sungwoon lets out a war cry and starts beating Jaehwan at foosball.

 

“Having fun?”

 

Seongwoo nods. “Sorta.”

 

Daniel laughs. “Just sorta?”

 

“You know it just becomes a real party when the interns go home.”

 

His ex-boyfriend laughs and there’s this second of silence that feels much more like a minute. Seongwoo clears his throat, about to say something when he hears a loud voice telling everyone to just shut up. The two of them look to the front right away, finding Jisung making a fancy pose as he opens his arms and there’s this funny smile on his face.

 

He’s drunk

 

He’s completely drunk.

 

“Hello, everyone,” he starts, “it’s a pleasure to have you here.”

 

They all clap loudly and Jisung calls the interns to the front of the room. The time of the big reveal has come. Daniel gets on his tiptoes and looks around.

 

“Where is Jihoon?”

 

Seongwoo checks his pockets. “Not with me.”

 

“Shut up!” he says back but he's laughing. Seongwoo looks up at the line of interns at the front of the room and to his surprise, Woojin is also nowhere to be seen. He furrows his brows, now utterly confused.

 

“Where are they?”

 

“Hell if I know?” Daniel replies and when they look back Jisung seems just as confused because he's looking at them, arms raised in question, and the two of them just shake their heads. Seongwoo picks up his phone, finds Woojin’s phone and dials the number waiting for exactly 30 seconds before hanging up. “He won’t pick up,” he informs Daniel, who looks back at Jisung and shrugs. Jisung shrugs back.

 

“Well,” their boss says, “guess we'll have to move on without them.”

 

Daniel turns to face him. “Where are they?”

 

“I don't know!”

 

Jisung is talking in the background but Seongwoo is barely listening. Both he and Daniel are on their tiptoes, looking around the crowd. Daniel heads to the bathroom while Seongwoo tries the bedroom super quick before coming back.

 

“They're nowhere!”

 

“What the fuck!”

 

“Do you think…?” Daniel starts with wide eyes and Seongwoo’s mouth drops in utter shock.

 

“No! They wouldn’t,” he says, and then in doubt, “No… Oh, my God. Would they?”

 

“I don’t know? Jihoon seems to hate him.”

 

Seongwoo nods. “Woojin hates him too.”

 

“And you know what they say about love and hate,” Daniel says in this smug way that makes Seongwoo punch his arm in utter disgust.

 

“AND THE WINNER OF THE YEARLY THE REAL MATCH CHALLENGE IS–”

 

“OH FUCK,” Seongwoo says at the same time Daniel says, “OH GOD,” and they’re looking right into each other’s eyes when Jisung screams:

 

“LEE DAEHWI.”

 

There’s a loud sound of someone punching a table “I CALLED IT,” Minhyun shouts and suddenly Youngmin and Jonghyun are lifting him on their backs, while Daehwi walks at the front with a huge Miss-Universe-smile and the whole room explodes in commotion. Shouts of “this is cheating,” to “bullshit,” to people crying because they lost the ongoing bet that was going on around the office. Seonho has his arms crossed, looking at Minhyun with a lot of hurt in his eyes while complaining about “how dare Minhyun not think he was going to win,” while Jaehwan is still looking around, completely lost.

 

“Who won?” he’s asking to basically everyone and Seongwoo holds back laughter.

 

“This is bullshit,” Daniel says and he is completely outraged. “I completely called it. Jisung was the one tutoring him. This is such an obvious outcome! I CALL NEPOTISM! HEY! THIS IS NEPOTISM!”

 

Seongwoo laughs, staring at him in disbelief. “Why are you so pissed?”

 

Daniel looks back at him and he’s pouting. He’s fucking pouting. “I just really wanted that raise.”

 

He can feel himself smiling and there are a million meanings behind it. It says “you idiot” and it also says “god, you’re cute”. It says “sometimes I can’t believe you are the way that you are” and it also means “I missed being this close, I missed talking to you like this, I miss you”. Seongwoo wonders if Daniel can read it all because the man stops laughing when their eyes meet, look changing for a second.

 

“Don’t smile at me like that,” he says softly and Seongwoo’s heart skips a beat.

 

“Why?” he dares to ask and Daniel inhales, looks away. Clears his throat.

 

And then he holds Seongwoo’s hand.

 

“Come on,” he says, pulling him closer, “Let’s find our children.”

 

 

* * *

 

 

They look everywhere. In the bathroom, in the kitchen, outside of the house. They look for them on the stairs and they even look for them inside of the closets. The only place they don’t look is the most obvious: the rooftop.

 

When Seongwoo spots them he stops by the doorway, holds Daniel back and he almost collapses against his back. The two of them watch as Jihoon bends down, hands on his knees as he takes a deep breath. Woojin is right behind him, resting a hand on his back, saying something as Jihoon just throws up what seems to be more than half of his dinner.

 

“Oh, poor boy,” Daniel says and Seongwoo feels his hot breath right behind his ear. He’s awfully close.

 

“I can’t believe they didn’t go because Jihoon is a weakling,” Seongwoo says and Daniel giggles. “Poor Woojin.”

 

“He doesn’t seem that upset.”

 

Which is true, he doesn’t. Woojin is laughing when Jihoon comes back up, punching him lightly on his arm. There’s this thing that lightens up in Seongwoo’s chest, something painful and odd. He breathes in deeply and closes the door quietly just before Woojin flashes a bright, beautiful smile at Jihoon. Daniel steps back and now, with the door closed, they’re in the darkness at the top of the stairway, with only the faint emergency light as a source of light.

 

“I thought they hated each other,” Seongwoo says, thoughtful, and Daniel shrugs.

 

“It’s a thin line, remember?”

 

They look at each other in silence, both of them leaning against the wall, a safe distance between them, but even so, the tension rises. There’s this intensity in Daniel’s eyes that pulls Seongwoo in, makes him forget how to breathe. So he gives in, looks away even if all he wants is to look back, up. Even if all he wants is to extend his arm, pull on the edge of Daniel’s jacket, bring him closer, so much closer.

 

But then Daniel is the first to move.

 

Seongwoo looks back, surprised, and Daniel takes a step toward him, eyes still on his. He has to inhale in deeply. “What are you doing?” He asks, voice nothing but a whisper as his eyes lower to Daniel’s lips without his consent, breath catching in.

 

And Daniel dares to not say a thing. He just gets closer, a hand reaching for the wall behind him, body now so close to Seongwoo’s he can feel his warmth and it’s dangerous, addictive. Their eyes meet and Seongwoo sustains his stare this time, skin burning when Daniel opens his mouth, gets closer, and then pauses, stares up at him.

 

“What are you doing?” Seongwoo asks again.

 

“What do you think?” Daniel asks and Seongwoo holds onto the edge of his coat, thinks of bringing him closer. It seems that it’s all Daniel needs, some sign, any sign of consent. All he has to do is give in, give it to him. All he has to do is close his eyes and forget.

 

But he can’t.

 

“Stop,” he says and Daniel furrows his brows.

 

“What?”

 

“I said stop!”

 

He doesn’t even need to push him, in less than a second Daniel is already stepping back, face confused as if Seongwoo has just slapped him. They stand there for a while, breathing heavily and Seongwoo doesn’t dare to look at him. He doesn’t dare because he’s confused. Doesn’t dare because there’s something inside of him that is angry, pissed, hurt. But there’s also something inside of him that wants him, needs, that will forgive everything, do anything for him to just come back and kiss him. And both are eating away at him from the inside, making him confused, upset, hurt, angry. He’s all those things at once and there’s only so much Seongwoo can take without completely exploding.

 

So, he explodes.

 

“What the fuck are you doing?”

 

“I’m sorry,” Daniel says and he looks at him like a puppy who just got kicked off of the couch because it kept chewing on their owner’s shoe. “I… I thought. I thought we were okay. I thought it’d be okay.”

 

“You thought?” Seongwoo scoffs, laughs without humor. “You’ve got to be kidding me.”

 

Daniel looks around and Seongwoo can see the desperation, the turmoil that is going on inside of him. Maybe he’d care, maybe he does right now, right here. But it’s odd the way the human mind, the human heart, works: it rarely does what you want it to do. It’s all over the place, out of his control. And before he realizes Seongwoo has his hands on Daniel’s chest, and he’s pushing him, only because he needs to. He hates him right now. He hates him so fucking much.

 

“You can’t just do that, you know? No one gave you the right!” he says, pushes again. Daniel has his own hands against the wall now, eyes wide, hurt.

 

“Do what?” he spits back. “What did I do now?”

 

Seongwoo sneers. “You waltz into my life like that? Just as I’m moving on you think it’s okay to just get the fuck back?” He knows he’s shouting and yet he can’t stop. “Who the fuck you think you are to play with me like that? Making a fake account to talk to me? Fuck you!”

 

That takes Daniel by surprise. He widens his eyes, mouth opening and then closing. “You knew it was me?”

 

“You’re kidding me, right? You think I’m fucking stupid?”

 

“If you knew then why did you play along with it?” Daniel continues and there’s this hint of something in his voice that just makes Seongwoo even angrier. It sounds a little too much like hope. “Why didn’t you just block me?”

 

“Shut up, Daniel.”

 

“Why? You wanted to talk to me too, right? You wanted to!” Daniel presses on, trying to find Seongwoo’s eyes, trying to make him look at him and Seongwoo runs, looks away. He won’t look at him. He just won’t. He knows that if he does, he’s lost. “You wanted to. You know you did.”

 

“Shut up!” he yells, takes Daniel’s hand away from his arm. “You. Fuck, Daniel, you can’t just do this, okay? Not after everything you put me through. You can’t just come and expect everything will be the same! You fucking can’t!”

 

The sigh that leaves Daniel’s lips sends a shiver down Seongwoo’s spine. “I’ve apologized. I’ve apologized so many times already.”

 

Seongwoo shakes his head. “I don’t care. It wasn’t nearly enough. I don’t think it’ll ever be enough.”

 

There’s silence and Seongwoo still can’t look at him. He looks to the ground, to his shoes. He looks everywhere but at him. Now that the words are all out it’s like the anger has left him too, it’s like everything is gone. He feels empty, void. He feels broken.

 

When Daniel speaks, Seongwoo wonders if maybe he’s broken too. “So,” he says, quiet, “then I guess there’s nowhere for us to go from here.”

 

It hits him and it hurts. And this time Seongwoo looks up at him and immediately wishes he didn’t.

 

“I guess not,” he says and he doesn’t mean it. He doesn’t want to mean it.

 

Daniel looks down at his shoes, stays like that for a second.

 

Then he leaves him alone.

  
  


* * *

 

 

There’s fire in Seongwoo’s eyes as he goes downstairs, stomping his feet loudly before leaving the building. He's going to burn this place to the ground. He's going to go back and tell Kang Daniel some more Truths. He's going to find some other nice man and fall in love and have a great love story with someone who also laughs at his jokes and who'll become his best friend. He’ll find Hwang Minhyun and he’ll tell him they should date and Kang Daniel will eat his heart out because Seongwoo is just so cool and has so many handsome men all over him. That's what Seongwoo wants to do. That’s what he wishes he could do.

 

But all he does is leave the building with a weight on his chest and something too akin to tears in his eyes. He's not going to cry, not again. He's not going to allow it to happen again, to be hurt, to be ruined. He stops when he reaches outside, looks up until the cold air slaps some sense into him.

 

“Hey,” he hears and he turns around, stares at the figure of Jisung standing in the doorway. He has a look on his face of someone who knows and that alone is too much. “You're going already?”

 

“Yeah, this party sucks,” he jabs and  Jisung doesn't react.

 

He tilts his head, thoughtful and then he heaves a deep sigh. “Come on,” Jisung says, a soft smile playing on his lips. “I'll take you out.”

 

-

 

The convenience store is empty as it should be at such an hour. The two of them sit down by the window and Jisung slides him a rice ball, making Seongwoo smile. It reminds him of old days. Remind him of times when the three of them sat down at this same spot, completely penniless, after working for hours and hours developing their unreleased app. It reminds him of a time when what they had now was just a dream and just how weird this whole growing up thing is.

 

“You two fought,” Jisung says, doesn't ask. “I know it already. Don't make that face.”

 

“How do you know?”

 

“Niel told me when he came downstairs and I decided I should follow you.”

 

That surprises him. “Well, that's odd.”

 

“Look, Ong. He's my best friend but I'm not blind. I know he fucked up. And I know you’re hurt,” Jisung says, eating a mouthful of his rice ball, “but also I’m too drunk right now to give you advice.”

 

Seongwoo frowns. “I never asked for advice.”

 

Jisung sighs. “Just be honest with me, Ong.”

 

He stares at his friend for a while and Jisung sits still, looking at him with this small smile that is both inviting and comforting. He thinks back, way back. For how long has he liked Daniel? For how long has this shit fest going on? Thinking right now he can trace it back to college, to the two of them taking classes together, walking home together.

 

And for how long has Jisung been a part of that whole mess?

 

Seongwoo smiles. “Do you remember you were the first person I told about liking him?”

 

“Yeah,” Jisung says, sighing, “which put me in a horrible position because days before he had told me he liked you. Like. Shit. There was me, knowing you two dipshits were into each other, but the two of you made me promise I’d never say anything.” He sighs again, like just the memory of it is already a burden. “Those were horrible times.”

 

“It all worked out, though,” Seongwoo says and Jisung smiles.

 

“Yeah. Lots of years and lots of alcohol later,” he jokes around, then closes his eyes, shaking his head. “You’re both so stupid. It’s like watching one of those horrible dramas where the couple never works out because they just refuse to talk!”

 

Seongwoo lets out an indignant sound. “That’s absurd!”

 

“It isn’t. Like the two of you just keep being stupid!”

 

“What do I have to do with it? He was the one who thought I copied his code and got all bitchy about it!”

 

“Seongwoo,” Jisung starts and Seongwoo knows he’s trying to say everything in his calmer voice, “Daniel fucked up, yes. It’s true. But you know you have more than once done shit to his work just for the fun of it, right?”

 

“I’ve never–”

 

“You once changed his code so once we ran the app it’d read ‘Daniel is an asswipe’. Like. He wasn’t that far-fetched. He fucked up, sure. He blew it out of proportion. Okay. He said things to you he shouldn’t have. But he wasn’t just making shit up out of thin air.”

 

Seongwoo crosses his arm. “You’re always on his side,” he says and the way Jisung rolls his eyes makes him even more annoyed. He never thought of things from that perspective but truth be told he still thinks it’s bullshit. Joking around is one thing, but cheating is something else entirely. “Also. Did you know he made a fake to flirt with me on our app?”

 

To his surprise, Jisung doesn’t seem shocked. He simply pinches his nose, exhausted. “Please, tell me you’re lying. Tell me he didn’t go through with that stupid idea.”

 

“You knew!”

 

“Of course I did. That idiot called me at 1 AM to ask me if I thought that’d be a good idea. I don’t know why the hell he calls me if he’s just going to do it anyway.”

 

“God damn it, Daniel!”

 

“Fuck him!”

 

“Yeah.”

 

They fall into silence and Seongwoo looks down at his soda, thoughtful. Jisung is the first one to talk again.

 

“You know he still likes you, right?”

 

Seongwoo closes his eyes. “I guess.”

 

“He does. He wants to be with you, to make things right. I know he’s a doofus and just shoves his feet in his mouth all the time but. The feeling is there. You know it. I know you do.”

 

He doesn’t know what to say to that so he stays quiet. There’s this dull, quiet pain in his heart that just won’t go away, the image of the hurtful look Daniel sent his way before walking away replaying in his mind like a curse.

 

“And I understand, you know? That sometimes it’s just… really hard to let go. To forgive. I get it. I told him a million times that he should wait a bit. Do you still like him too?”

 

Seongwoo hates just how quickly the reply comes to his mind, even if it takes him a while to be able to vocalize it. “Yeah.”

 

“So, I guess it’s just a matter of choice,” Jisung says, opening up another rice ball. “Like. If you put both your pride and your feelings for him on a scale, which side would weigh more?”

 

He looks at his friend and then down to his hands, imagining the metaphorical scale in his head.

 

Oh, fuck.

 

As if he didn’t know the answer already.

 

 

* * *

 

 

Seongwoo doesn’t go to work for the next two days.

 

Being good friends with the CEO has its perks. Well, being one of the damn founders of the company has its perks. So, he relaxes at home, watches reality shows, plays with his dog. He does everything and he also does nothing. He rests for a while, body and mind.

 

It takes exact two days for Kang Daniel to haunt him again.

 

**yoo jiho**

hey.

are you ok?

you didn’t come again so. i was worried.

 

Seongwoo can’t help but laugh when he sees the message, throwing his head back, sitting down on the couch. He’s got to be shitting him.

 

**ong seongwoo**

you don’t even have a sense of shame do you?

messaging me through your fake

oh my god

 

**yoo jiho**

oh.

shit.

i didn’t even notice

lol

 

_[yoo jiho changed his name to kang daniel]_

 

better?

 

**ong seongwoo**

i preferred jiho, tbh.

 

**kang daniel**

oh

lol

sorry

listen. jisung told me you were taking time off

like something about you not feeling well

i know it sounds contradictory that i know because i used the fact that you’re not coming to try starting conversation with u

lol

but

can we talk? maybe this saturday?

in real life?

 

Seongwoo doesn’t reply right away. He takes a while, staring at the screen with lips pressed together, trying to think of what the hell he wants. It’s all still muddled, still too caught up in the past. He sighs, tries to think.

 

What’s more important to him?

 

**ong seongwoo**

hm

how about at 7 pm? good for u?

 

**kang daniel**

perfect!

 

-

 

When Seongwoo told Daniel he could choose the place they’d go to he never thought this is where they’d come.

 

This bar is a stupid one. Stupid because it’s always full and it’s overpriced. Stupid because it’s filled with young people and it makes Seongwoo feel old.

 

It’s also stupid because it was the first place they ever went on a date on.

 

Kang Daniel. Trying to be fucking romantic. And succeeding.

 

This is a new all-time low.

 

“This place is loud,” Seongwoo complains for the third time when Daniel comes back with their beers. “It was loud the first time you brought me here and it’s still loud.”

 

Daniel smiles. “You said it three times.”

 

“I thought maybe you didn’t hear me,” he says. “Because it’s so loud. Get it?”

 

Daniel nods, a comprehensive smile on his face. Then he sits down, brings his chair closer to Seongwoo’s, and just like that, he leans in, all over Seongwoo’s personal space.

 

“You know I’m still in love with you, right?” he says suddenly and Seongwoo’s eyes widen.

 

He’s ready to say something, anything, but his mouth is dry, the loud music a little too much for his ears. If he had it his way the whole world would be erased and it’d just be the two of them, just the two of them and Daniel’s words. But truth be told if he also had it his way Daniel would disappear and none of this would’ve ever happened.

 

“No,” Daniel shushes him when he tries speaking, “I’m the one who’s going to talk now.”

 

“You say that as if you never talk.”

 

“Be quiet.” He laughs, still a little too close. Seongwoo can see the line under his eyes, he can see the way Daniel’s knee is shaking, so close to his own. “I’m still in love with you. I never stopped being in love with you, actually. And okay, I know I fucked up. There’s no excuse for what I did. I’m sorry. And if I need to repeat it forever then so be it. I’m sorry, and I’m sorry, and I’m sorry.”

 

Seongwoo feels his throat tightening dangerously and he breathes in deeply, tries to let some air in, to fill his lungs with anything that isn’t suffocating. This time he doesn’t even try to say anything. He lets Daniel keep talking.

 

“And I mean. I know we were never the perfect match but we worked, didn’t we? So. What I wanted to say is… Ah.” He heaves a sigh, smiles, looks down. “Damn, why is it so hard?”

 

“Go on,” Seongwoo says, and he’s out of breath. “Just go on.”

 

That seems to give Daniel his guts back. He looks up, inhales. “I love you,” he starts and the tone of his voice kills Seongwoo. It just fucking kills him. “And I want you back. I want us back. If you’d have me, of course.”

 

At first, he doesn’t know what to say. Seongwoo sits still and Daniel reaches out, holds his hand and Seongwoo just lets him. He lets him hold him, and he looks down to their intertwined fingers and heaves a deep sigh.

 

He tries to think of what’s important. He tries to think of what he wants. He tries to let his heart speak, honest and true. He finds it difficult to think when the music is loud and Daniel is this close. But there’s a tightness in his throat he can’t quite run away from, and a heaviness in his heart that weighs him down. When he breathes in again, he has made his decision.

 

“I love you too, you know,” he starts and Daniel closes his eyes. “I have loved you for years. You know it too, don’t you? I know you do, you conceited piece of shit.” They laugh and Seongwoo squeezes his hand. “And I want the same as you. I want to go back to you. I want us back too, but—” He bites on his lower lip, worried about how he’ll say the next words. “Not now. I’m not ready. You’ve apologized and I’m trying to forgive you. And I know I will. But right now, I feel it wouldn’t be fair to you or to myself if I just say I’m okay because I’m not.”

 

Daniel looks up at him and he’s listening attentively. That alone makes Seongwoo a little bit braver.

 

“It hurt me that you thought I’d hurt you to that point. I know I fucked with you many times but. The things you said. The things you called me. I think it’s something I need to work on, this… grudge. And I will. I will work on it.” He smiles and Daniel nods. “But I love you. I do. And I’ll have you. If you wait for me. If you wait for me to work things out.”

 

Right now, suddenly, Seongwoo feels the same way he felt a year ago, back on their first official date in this very same place, back when he asked Daniel if they could see each other again. That weird feeling in his stomach, that anxious feeling of not knowing what the other will say. But Daniel just flashes one of his best smiles, even if Seongwoo can see that this is not what he was expecting. Even if Seongwoo can see that he’s hurt here and there. He smiles and squeezes Seongwoo’s hand tighter and this is the moment that something in Seongwoo shifts, turns. Like falling in love, but for the second time.

 

“I’ll wait,” Daniel says, still smiling. “It doesn’t matter how much time you need.”

 

Seongwoo raises his brows. “Really? Even if it takes years?”

 

“Even if it takes years,” Daniel replies, proudly, then he leans in and whispers, “Please, don’t take years.”

 

Seongwoo laughs and Daniel laughs back, their forehead touching.

 

Hands still together.

 

 

* * *

 

 

Seongwoo had asked Daniel for time and time he was given.

 

It was like getting to know each other for the first time. Or something very close to being courted, which was just a very funny concept. But tonight, the big night, the night of the official launch of The Perfect Match feature in their app—it’s been two months since Seongwoo asked him for time. Two months since they left that bar side by side and Daniel left Seongwoo at his front door, waved goodbye and walked away. Two months of them going out from time to time, as friends.

 

Two months.

 

And now Seongwoo is just tired of fucking waiting.

 

He knows this just contradicts the whole point of him asking for Daniel to wait. He shouldn’t be mad at him, can’t be mad at him when Daniel is just being a nice person and doing exactly as he asked him to. But it’s frustrating. Frustrating because every time they go out Seongwoo can feel his skin crawling in anticipation, his whole body anticipating, waiting for something, anything to happen. But Daniel never does a thing.

 

He doesn’t even hold his hand anymore, the fucking asshole.

 

Even right now, here, at this party, Daniel is keeping his distance. They were talking at first but then he slipped away, out to talk with Jisung and Sungwoon. The fucking nerve. He should be all over him. He should be kissing the floor he walks on. He should be begging for him to come back to him before the end of the year, which was, actually, just around the corner.

 

Daniel looks back and catches him staring, and Seongwoo looks away, pretends he’s checking something on the furniture of Jisung’s apartment. A second passes and his phone buzzes.

 

**kang daniel**

u can stare at me, it’s ok

i’ll allow it

 

Seongwoo tries his hardest to not look like a dumbass smiling at his phone.

 

**ong seongwoo**

conceited asshole

 

**kang daniel**

meet me outside?

rooftop?

 

Seongwoo looks up and Daniel motions to the door, wiggles his brows in that stupid way that makes Seongwoo laugh. He nods and heads up, reaching the rooftop of Jisung’s building first. He stares at the sky, the cold air taking a little of his drunkenness away. When the door opens behind him Daniel greets him with a goofy smile and two drinks.

 

“Ah, it’s cold!” he whines as he approaches him, handing him the drink. “Cheers!”

 

“Cheers,” Seongwoo says and they toast. Then they stand side by side, both of them staring at the skyline but Seongwoo is all too aware of their shoulders touching.

 

What a ridiculous situation to be in. He’s a grown man. A 26-year-old man. A professional. An adult. He pays most of his bills, he pays his taxes. He just rented a very tiny apartment and is barely making ends meet but it’s a start, right? He’s employed. It’s a startup, sure, but it’s good. By all means, Ong Seongwoo is an adult, he meets all the requirements.

 

And yet here he is, blushing because his shoulder touched Daniel’s shoulder; here he is having an inner mental breakdown over whether or not he should just fucking kiss him.

 

If he’s honest he doesn’t even know what’s holding him down. He was the one who asked for time, and time had been given to him, but now he’s tired of waiting. He’s made up his mind. He loves Kang Daniel, as much of an idiot as he is, and he wants to go back to him. But he doesn’t know how to say it without actually saying it. It just feels anticlimactic. Like suddenly turning around and saying:

 

_So… About that time thing… Let’s drop it, all right?_

 

He cringes at the thought.

 

But he also thinks he should at least give him some hint, say something. It has been a whole minute and they’re silent, looking at the view like two idiots without even talking. But everything Seongwoo thinks about saying involves love confessions that he doesn’t want to make or “can’t you just kiss me already?” and that’s stupid. He feels stupid just thinking about saying those words. He wonders if he suddenly makes some dumb comment about how beautiful the city view is Daniel will get his cue and say something cheesy in reply such as “you’re more beautiful” and then they’ll kiss just like in the dramas and this shit will be over with.

 

Seongwoo frowns. No. That would never work.

 

Daniel is so dense he’d just reply with a “what’s so beautiful about a bunch of buildings.” If he wants to get anywhere he’ll just have to go straight to the point.

 

Ah. Fuck it.

 

Seongwoo will just fucking say it.

 

“You know, about that tim–” he starts but when he turns around to face Daniel and just fucking tell him to kiss him Daniel does exactly that: he kisses him.

 

His hands are cold against Seongwoo’s cheeks, lips soft and surprisingly warm. Being kissed by Daniel like this feels like having all of the air pulled away from his lungs, but it also feels like breathing again after a long, long time spent dead. It feels like having someone reach out for his chest and fill it with warmth. It feels like going home after a very, very long trip and lying down on his bed. It feels quiet and peace.

 

It feels the way falling in love should feel.

 

When they break apart Daniel holds onto his coat, rests his forehead against his and Seongwoo notices his knees are shaking. He’s nervous.

 

So fucking adorable.

 

“Ah,” Daniel breathes out and the tone of his voice sends shivers down Seongwoo’s spine, “I missed this. Fuck, I missed this so much.”

 

Seongwoo needs to cling to his arms and he feels like his legs are about to give in too.

 

“For someone who missed this so much, you sure took your damn time.”

 

Daniel widens his eyes. “You asked me to?” he says, outraged. “I was being a goddamn gentleman?”

 

“Yeah, you took the role really seriously,” Seongwoo replies sarcastically and Daniel lets go of him, hands on his waist like some old aunt scolding him.

 

“Are you telling me I should've kissed you way sooner than this? Do you know how much self-restraint I had to use to give you your damn time?”

 

Seongwoo laughs at his anger and Daniel shakes his head, widening his eyes when Seongwoo pulls on his arm, brings him closer again. This time he kisses him slower, gentler. There’s no desperation, longing. There’s just this quiet feeling of knowing he can do this as many times as he wants, whenever he wants.

 

“So,” Daniel starts between kisses, “I’m forgiven?”

 

He sends him an odd look. “Are you?”

 

“I feel like I am.”

 

“Because you’re a conceited piece of shit,” Seongwoo replies but there’s no bite at all, just affection, which is made clearer by the way he brings Daniel even closer, hugs him, holds him. They fit well like this and it’s just right.

 

It’s a weird thing, Seongwoo thinks. To feel this fulfilled.

 

“Oh,” Daniel says suddenly, picking up his phone, “I completely forgot about the launch.”

 

“Is it time?” Seongwoo replies, also picking up his phone.

 

The two of them see a message to update The Real Match app and go through with it, waiting with bated breaths. Once it’s done, they stare at each other excitedly.

 

“We should do it together,” Seongwoo says and Daniel agrees.

 

They count until three and then press the button.

 

Their picture glows exactly three times.

 

Then their Perfect Match picture shows up on the screen.

 

Seongwoo frowns. “What?” he says, staring at a man named “Moon Sangwoo,” who is 32 years-old and lives in Busan. “What the hell?”

 

Daniel is also frowning. “Kim Minhee,” he reads. “Well. She’s pretty.”

 

“This is weird. Woojin’s app would always give you as my Perfect Match.”

 

Now Daniel looks up again, eyebrows furrowed, looking confused. “Jihoon’s too. It gave me you, every single time.”

 

Realization hits them almost (Daniel always has this little delay) at the same time and they stare at each other for a while, amusement in their expressions before the two of them shrug, laugh it off. They’d have time to get back at Jihoon and Woojin, that’s for sure. Or maybe it really was just a mistake, just a coincidence. Maybe it was all just a joke. Or meant to be.

 

Seongwoo couldn’t care less right now to be honest.

 

There are far more important things in his present than dwelling on the past. Or at least, so he has learned during the past few months.

 

“So,” he starts and Daniel looks back at him, “will you chat up the pretty Kim Minhee? Your Perfect Match?”

 

There’s faux jealousy in his voice and Daniel is completely delighted. He gets closer again, kisses Seongwoo’s cheek, and then hugs him, buries his face in his neck.

 

Seongwoo swears he could die at any given second of cardiac arrest.

 

“Nah,” Daniel says against his neck, and then he looks up with the most beautiful smile Seongwoo has ever seen. “Perfect matches are overrated anyway.”

  
  
  
  


**Author's Note:**

> first i want to thank l and d, who held my hand, stayed by my side and assured me this wasn't terrible. i also want to thank the beautiful admins of this exchange for being awesome and putting up with this fandom. also, thanks to the beta who read through this mess. thank you very, very, very much.
> 
> and now:  
> dear recipient, i hope this was to your liking. this fic brought me pain but i hope it brought you joy and that it's at least a little bit close to what you were hoping for!
> 
> and to everyone who read it, thanks a lot <3


End file.
